Percentage Increase in Arrests for Serious Crimes – Men & Women

Below is the chart showing percentage increase of arrests for serious crimes for men and women from 2001 – 2010.

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Source: NCRB Software for analysis ‘Crime Info’. The detailed article link is The Fairer Criminals

Women Arrested for Crime

I just came across the news article that In India, Maharashtra tops list of women arrested for crime. As per the NCRB data from 2001-2010 for arrests, the growth rate for arrests of women for murder, attempt to murder and dacoity  is 10.6%, 46.4% and 110.3% and comparable numbers for men are -18.4%, -17.2% and -29.9%.

What are the reasons for this structural change in society? A detailed study on this can be found on my earlier post titled ‘The Fairer Criminals‘

 

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Women in Work Force – Part 3 (short update)

This is in continuation to the earlier posts which can be found here- Part 1 and Part 2.

One of the justifications advanced for women leaving the work force is that they join the part-time labour force. Let us analyze the past years data on Current Weekly Activity Status Approach (cws). According to the CWS approach, a person is considered as a worker if he/she has performed any economic activity for at least 1 hour on any day of the reference week. For details please refer this link.

As per the CWS Approach the number of women participants in the labour force have reduced by 20% from 2004 to 2012[i]

Do feel free to comment and hypothesize any other reason for this trend.

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[i] NSSO employment surveys 60, 62, 64, 66 and 68. Current Weekly Activity Status (cws) approach data. (Participation rate per 1,000)

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Women in Work Force – Part 2

I recently got a response to my article ‘Women in Work Force’, that women are leaving the work force because they need to take care of the children.

The justification seems logical but does not hold merit as –

• Did women not have to take care of children in 2004? Were women not taking care of children earlier and therefore working and have recently realized over the past decade that they need to take care of children?
• The proportion of children to the total population of India has reduced in the past decade, implying that lesser women-hours are to be spent on taking care of children now as compared to a decade earlier. Therefore logically their participation in the labour force should have increased as opposed to decreasing.

As per the census of India[i], the proportion of children in the age group 0-10 years has reduced from 26.5% in 2001 to 22.3% in 2011. This means, now more women should have free time as they donot have to take care of the children.

Another justification given for women going out of the work force is that they join the part-time labour force. If we analyse the labour force taking into account the subsidiary economic activity (ss) workers, even then number of women participants have reduced by 20%.[ii]

Hence, none of the justifications seem to be backed by facts.

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[i] Census of India: 2011 and 2001

[ii] NSSO employment surveys 60, 62, 64, 66 and 68. Usual Principal Activity Status (ps) and Usual Subsidiary Economic Activity Status (ss) approach data. (Participation rate per 1,000)

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Women in Work Force

The working population in India is typically classified as 15-59 years age group. As a general philosophy every able bodied person is liable for their own upkeep and maintenance. Which implies every able bodied man and woman should ideally work and contribute to the society. This is to ensure that free riders are not there and the economy prospers.

A very important element in the growth for the economy is the participation of women in the workforce. The Labour Force Participation Rate[i] for men and women in India are given below:

From the above table we see that Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for women has reduced over the years as India is progressing towards development. Implying that more women choose to stay at home and not have an economic contribution. Such a trend should be a matter of concern for any society as free riders are like a parasite which is a non-mutual relationship where one party benefits at the cost of the other.

One of the reasons extended for women not working is that they take care of the household which should be considered as an economic activity. As per the NSO survey[ii], women spend about 2.1 hours cooking food and about 1.1 hours cleaning the house and utensils daily. In essence, women put in a total of 3.3 hours a day working within the house as compared to around 11 hours put in by their counterparts (ie. men). Hence, this justification also does not hold water.

One of the reasons for this disturbing trend of workforce participation of women reducing could be the lop-sided (biased) laws of India. All social and economic responsibilities are supposed to be shouldered by men and further there are no government programmes for their benefit. Let us take the example of maintenance, as per Section 125 of CrPC the liability for maintenance of wife, children and parents is only on men. No such liability is conferred on the women in India. If both men and women are considered equal then why such biased laws?

The effect of such laws is evident in the society with women becoming complacent and leaving the workforce. This has increased the parasitic tendencies and is a recipe for economic downturn.

What are your thoughts on this negative trend? Do feel free to comment…

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[i] NSSO employment surveys 60, 62, 64, 66 and 68. Usual Principal Status approach data (Urban + Rural). (Participation rate per 1,000)

[ii] National Statistical Organization: Men and Women in India, 2012 – 14^th Issue, Para 33

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Domestic Violence in India

Domestic Violence may primarily be defined into 4 classes, a) Physical Abuse, b) Emotional & Verbal Abuse, c) Sexual Abuse and d) Economic Abuse.

As per section 3 of the The Protection Of Women From Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (DV Act), the definition of the various categories of domestic violence are [i]–

Physical Abuse: means any act or conduct which is of such a nature as to cause bodily pain, harm, or danger to life, limb, or health or impair the health or development of the aggrieved person and includes assault, criminal intimidation and criminal force.

Sexual Abuse: includes any conduct of a sexual nature that abuses, humiliates, degrades or otherwise violates the dignity of the person.

Verbal and Emotional abuse includes-

• insults, ridicule, humiliation, name calling and insults
• repeated threats to cause physical pain to any person in whom the aggrieved person is interested.

Economic Abuse includes-

• deprivation of all or any economic or financial resources to which the aggrieved person is entitled under any law or custom whether payable under an order of a court or otherwise or which the aggrieved person requires out of necessity
• disposal of household effects, any alienation of assets whether movable or immovable, valuables, shares, securities, bonds and the like or other property in which the aggrieved person has an interest or is entitled to use by virtue of the domestic relationship
• prohibition or restriction to continued access to resources or facilities which the aggrieved person is entitled to use or enjoy by virtue of the domestic relationship

Majority of the domestic violence studies focus primarily the violence committed by the male spouses on their female counterparts. Many studies conducted in the west have found that domestic violence is not a gender specific issue but affect both the genders equally. Both ‘Husband to wife’ and ‘Wife to Husband’ violence has been found in various studies. In the study by Morse, 1995[ii], the researcher came to a conclusion that both men and women are equally likely to assault their partners. In a study conducted by Whitaker DJ, Haileyesus T, Swahn M, Saltzman LS. in 2007[iii], found that in almost 24% of relationship there was some sort of violence with about 49.7% of violence activities to be reciprocal. In non-reciprocal violence women were the perpetrators in over 70% of the cases.

Women are more likely to use weapons during domestic violence as per an international study by Brown GA, 2004[iv]. As per the study 28.4% of the women were charged by assaulting with a knife, 11% with a blunt instrument and 7.7% with some other weapon.

A gist of some other international domestic violence surveys/studies is given below –

	Male-to-Female (%)	Female-to-Male(%)
Bland & Orn (1986)(a)	14.6	22.6
Brinkerhoff & Lupri (1988)(b)	24.6	27.5
DeKeseredy & Schwartz (1998)(ade)	35	46.1
Grandin & Lupri (1997)(b)	18.3	25.3
Straus & Gelles (1986)(b)
Men’s Reports	12.2	10.5
Women’s Reports	12.1	11.9
Magdol et al. (1997)(bd)
Men’s Reports	22.8	34.1
Women’s Reports	27.1	37.2
a: prevalence rates (violence experienced ever in the past)
b: one-year prevalence rates
c: violence experienced from a current partner
d: young adult sample
e: women’s reports only

(Source: Gender Differences in Patterns of Relationship Violence In Alberta, 1999- By Kwong M, Bartholomew K and Dutton D)

Domestic Violence Studies conducted in India: Majority of all domestic violence studies conducted in India are primarily targeting male to female domestic violence. Reciprocal violence and female to male violence does not seem to be researched. For example in the research article Violence against Women in India: Evidence from Rural Gujarat, 1999, 346 women were contacted for the survey. Please note that in the sample not a single male respondent is there. Further, the questions asked donot seem to probe the female to male domestic violence (women initiated domestic violence). In another study titled, Domestic violence against women in eastern India: a population-based study on prevalence and related issues, both men and women were part of the sample. In this study, both men and women were administered different questionnaires. For women the questionnaires focused on victimization where they were asked whether their husbands or family members committed violence against them. Men were administered questionnaires on perpetration where they were asked if they had committed violent acts against their wife. The copy of the questionnaire can be found here.

The important points to note in these surveys are –

• In many studies only women are the respondent and the questions administered are primarily of victimization
• In other studies where both men and women are respondents questions administered are victimization for women and perpetration for men.

In domestic violence studies conducted, men are never asked if they ever suffered domestic violence at the hands of their wives and women are never asked if they were ever perpetrators of domestic violence against their husbands. The construct of these studies were primarily based on a biased notion that women are victims of domestic violence and men the perpetrators. At the onset of the study, bias has been introduced by the researcher either by way of choosing the sample or by way of administering different sets of questions to different genders. Therefore, the results obtained by these studies cannot be said to be free from bias.

A detailed analysis on domestic violence studies conducted in India and its deficiencies have been enumerated by Sadhukhan P, in a blog post written in 2012. In this article Sadhukhan concludes that the research conducted in India is administered in a gender biased way and ignores female to male violence (ie. ignores men as a victim of domestic violence)

Men as victims of Domestic Violence: A study conducted by Save Family Foundation by Sarkar S, Dsouza R and Dasgupta A, titled Domestic Violence Against Men, 2006, interviewed 1650 men across India as to whether they suffered domestic violence at the hands of their wives. A substantial percentage of men reported suffering domestic violence at the hands of their wives during the in-depth interviews.

In the paper titled The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence, 2013, by Nupur Bhutani, a research was conducted on instances of domestic violence on men with a sample size of 242 participants. The questionnaire administered contained various questions exploring the above 4 classes of domestic violence. Approximately 93% of the participants indicated that they suffered Verbal and Emotional violence at the hands of their wife. 76% stated that they had experienced Economic Abuse and 48% stated sexual abuse was suffered by them at the hands of their wives. Further, roughly 73% men had experienced physical abuse at the hands of their wives.

Approximately 55% of men had cuts, bruises or aches due to the physical violence at the hands of their wife, 9% men got burnt because of their wife and almost 31% men had eye injuries, sprains or dislocations due to the domestic violence.

The participants were also asked if they had ever initiated domestic violence with their wives. 96% of the participants replied in the negative stating that they never abused or tried to abuse their wives.

(Source: The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence, 2013 – By Nupur Bhutani)

(Source: The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence, 2013 – By Nupur Bhutani)

In both the above domestic violence studies conducted in India a high percentage of violence is reported against men. The results of these surveys are consistent with international studies where a higher percentage of men had experienced domestic violence.

Non-Reporting of Domestic Violence by Men: Men typically donot report domestic violence due to the deep rooted bias in the society against them. Mostly, the men who speak-up are made fun off, shamed and even ridiculed when they disclose that they have suffered domestic violence. Further, there is no institutional support to safeguard men against an abusive partner. In certain cases the abusive partner may use the same institution to further abuse the harassed husbands. These social and structural factors serve as a negative catalyst which keeps the husbands in an abusive relationship.

(Source: The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence, 2013 – By Nupur Bhutani)

It is high time we realize this serious issue in the society and Stand Up for a Cause to promote a positive change in the society by making the DV Act gender neutral.  

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[i] The definition have been abridged for the purpose of the article. Further, the definitions have also been modified to make them gender neutral.

[ii] Beyond the Conflict Tactics Scale: Assessing Gender Differences in Partner Violence, Author: Morse, Barbara J

[iii] Differences in frequency of violence and reported injury between relationships with reciprocal and nonreciprocal intimate partner violence, Authors: Whitaker DJ, Haileyesus T, Swahn M, Saltzman LS.

[iv] Gender as a factor in the response of the law-enforcement system to violence against partners, Author: Brown GA, 2004

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IrBM Arguments in Media – Part 2 (Short Update)

In recent media debate pro IrBM school of thought have brought out 2 points of view. The first point of view is that women also assist in building the matrimonial assets. Their labour in the house is immense for which they should get equal property share and the other one is that by asking for a share in husband’s property, they are demanding their right.

Let’s critically evaluate every statement –

1)      Household Work: During the debates the household work done by women is treated as equal contribution in building matrimonial property. The work of the husband is completely sidelined or treated as something which he ought to do as his duty. Without going into the value of work, let’s analyze the number of hours put in by both men and women. As per the NSO[i] survey, women spend about 2.1 hours cooking food and about 1.1 hours cleaning the house and utensils daily. In essence, women put in a total of 3.3 hours a day in building matrimonial assets. Compare this to the hours put in by a man which is around 11 hours a day (10 hours of work and 1 hour of travel time). Therefore men essentially put in 3.33 times more effort and work in building matrimonial assets. Even if we include managing children as a chore, which it is not otherwise during separation the women would be giving the child’s custody to the father, the total time spent by women in household work increases to 6.46 hours. Even taking into account this stretched number, men put in 1.75 times more effort in building matrimonial assets.

Do note that in the whole calculation above we have not included the value of work done by men or women. Do take a guess as to who generates more value per hour in their work. Further, many women also outsource their household work to maid servants, salary of whom is paid by the husband. In essence, the husband has to work harder so that the household work may be outsourced by his wife on his expense. Still the women’s group demand equal property division of not only matrimonial but also ancestral property of the husband.

2)      Rights of Women: The second argument is on a rights approach wherein the school of thought supporting IrBM state women demand their right and they ought to get the same. A point of view here is that as per heirship and succession laws of India, women need to get an equal share of the property from their parents (ie. their right) . Inability to apply these laws is often cited as the reason to bring in IrBM. How can non applicability of one set of laws be a reason for passing an unjust act? Why can IrBM not be gender neutral wherein the property of both husband and wife is pooled together and then divided based on the effort put in by both. Will this method not be Just and Equitable. Currently as IrBM stands a section of society is being unjustly enriched in the name of rights and false gender equality.

In developed nations of the world such as Sweden and Germany, the propertiesof husband and wife are treated separately and only joint contributed property is treated as marital property. This comes from the tenet that all able bodied persons should be liable for their own upkeep[ii].

Do you still support IrBM?

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[i] National Statistical Organization: Men and Women in India, 2012 – 14^th Issue, Para 33

[ii] http://www.ejcl.org/123/art123-4.pdf

Related articles

• IrBM Arguments in the Media (standupforacause.wordpress.com)
• Why Should Men Marry? (standupforacause.wordpress.com)

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Child Marriages in India

I just came across a media article stating that 46% of the Indian women (between the ages of 18 and 29) are married before the age of majority. WOW, a whopping 46%.

In the 2011 SRS Census Survey of India, the details of marriage, average age and child marriages is captured. As per the statement 12 of the 2011 SRS Census Survey only 3.7% of married women, married before the age of 18. Further, the average marriage age for these women in child marriages was 16.5 years. Majority of the Indian women have married above the age of 21.

The mean marriage age for women has increased over the decades from 19.3 years in 1990 to 21.2 years in 2011 as per the Census. Therefore the data point stated in the article that 46% women in India marry below the age of 18 seems incorrect.

The article further states that the child brides in India are projected to increase to 140 million by 2020 from the current projection of 23 million, with atleast 18.5 million brides under the age of 15. I am unable to fathom the numbers due to the following points –

1. Average age of marriage of women in India is increasing and has increased from 19.3 years in 1990 to 21.2 years in 2011.
2. The average age of child brides in India is 16.5 years, then how will 18.5 million child brides be under the age of 15 as projected in the news report?
3. The news report cites a reference to the National Family Health Survey-3. This survey was conducted in the year 2005-06. Why is it being cited after a period of 7 years when better and reliable SRS census data for 2011 is available?

Is the quality of journalism in India deteriorating? You decide and Stand Up for a Cause …

The Fairer Criminals

There has been a lot of discussion recently that women are docile and the ‘abla naari’ who need protection from the demons on the streets called men. Having this ideology many gender biased laws were passed in recent times such as Domestic Violence Laws, Dowry Protection Laws, Sexual Harassment at Workplace Law and the recent IrBM.

All these laws were passed with a premise that women are the victims and need protection. The due checks and balances of even prosecution for false complaints were omitted in these laws and we have seen rampant misuse of the same.

We will discuss today if there has been ay structural change in the society over the past 10 years. We have used the NCRB Crime data from 2001 – 2010 for arrests made for serious crimes such as murder, dacoity, burglary, arson, kidnapping, thefts etc… The data for increase in arrests by police over the 10 year period is given below:

NSSO Employment Survey Analysis

I was reading the news article today which hinted that there is a Job Crisis in the rural areas for women and they have lost 9.1 mn jobs in 2 years.  Another link to the article can be found here. The number seemed astonishingly high. The data from the NSSO survey is:

2009-10	Labour Force Participation Rate		Presently Unemployed
	Men	Women	Men	Women
Rural	548	208	11	5
Urban	556	128	17	9

2011-12	Labour Force Participation Rate		Presently Unemployed
	Men	Women	Men	Women
Rural	547	181	12	5
Urban	560	134	18	9